Outside of special commercial grooming facilities, pets are usually washed in the family bathtub or shower, or even occasionally in sanitary laundry tubs or in wash tubs designed for other purposes.
Bathing the pet can be a very messy job. Frequently the pet becomes anxious and reluctant to be bathed because of past unpleasant experiences. Often the pet may need to be lifted over the very tall sides of the bathtub, sanitary tub or wash tub. For larger animals, such as collies, this may be very difficult for the owner as these animals may weigh in excess of 70 lbs. Once in the tub or shower, the animal may become frightened and may try to run away and possibly injure itself in climbing over the tub's slippery sides, or the animal may injure itself on glass shower doors.
Once the animal is in the tub, it may be wetted with water, shampooed, and then rinsed with water. However, the pet may become frightened during the procedure because of soap getting in the pet's eyes or the actual physical bathing procedure and the pet may want to escape and will frequently try to shake the water and shampoo from its coat onto the person who bathes the pet. Frequently the water is also shaken onto the surrounding floor area creating a potentially slippery area and onto the wallpaper and wall covering and floor coverings of the areas in which the pet is bathed. The shake-off water sometimes leaves an unpleasant pet odor which lingers on surfaces which absorb it, such as wallpaper, bath rugs or carpeting, shower curtains or adjacent hallway carpeting. This extra mess is a bother for the pet owner to cleanup. In addition, the animal may shed excess fur during the bathing procedure. This excess fur can potentially clog the drains of the bathtub, tub or shower. After bathing the pet, the area must be sanitized and deodorized for human use.
Although bathing a pet indoors in a tub or shower intended for humans usually requires extensive clean-up, outdoor bathing of a pet in a conventional washtub or bucket is inconvenient at best, as water for bathing must be carried in a bucket to the bathing site, or more commonly will be applied from a conventional garden hose. Such a hose is difficult to control and is not generally storeable in a convenient spot while other pet cleaning steps are pursued.
Furthermore, in many cases dirty or wet pets must be lifted into the wash basin or tub, with resultant soiling of the pet bather's clothing.
What is needed is a portable pet bathing apparatus into which a pet can easily enter which restrains the pet and also minimizes bathwater dispersal on to surrounding areas.